The notion that making and experiencing the arts can be healing has a long history. At the beginning of the 20th century, tuberculosis patients “taking the cure” at sanatoria often participated in structured arts and crafts programs. Wounded soldiers recuperating during World War II were taught “lap crafts,” such as beading and embroidery, as part of their medical therapy. The arts have served as powerful medicine for both mind and body for centuries. When planning for this exhibition considering the connection between art and healing began, the Covid-19 pandemic was dominating headlines around the globe. How do the arts help us process and/or recover from medical illness? How can they help us navigate the complex experience of what it is to be a medical patient facing serious illness in the 21st century? And how can art help us heal from other kinds of social and emotional trauma? MUSEUM EXHIBITION The exhibition features artwork by several contemporary artists who have used their practices as ways of exploring and processing their own experience of medical illness and also the experiences of others. Working in a range of media and from widely varying points of view and experiences, these artists have made art ...

Enjoy a tour of the exhibition with the Museum’s curator. Living through the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans developed a new relationship to the night sky, looking to the stars for connection at a time of isolation. Located in rural Idaho, the number one state per capita for UFO sightings, SVMoA sits at the edge of the 1,416 square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. Motivated by this geography and by local lore surrounding the possibility of extraterrestrial life, SVMoA’s fall exhibition considers our human experience of UFOs and the extraterrestrial. Rather than ask what those who report UFO sightings have actually seen, the exhibition asks why we look to the night skies for signs of life, and how we experience phenomena we can’t explain. Featuring commissioned projects by artists Deb Sokolow and Cable Griffith alongside work by Karla Knight, Robyn O’Neil, Ionel Talpazan, Esther Pearl Watson, and Timothy Wyllie. Refreshments will be served in the Museum classroom prior to the start of the tour.